Georgia To Drop Paper-and-Pencil Test for Kindergartners

The Georgia Board of Education has approved a proposal by the state
school chief to eliminate the use of pencil-and-paper tests to assess
kindergarten students' readiness for 1st grade.

Georgia drew criticism from early-childhood experts nationwide last
year when it became the first state to require kindergarten students to
take a pencil-and-paper test as a condition for promotion. (See
Education Week, March 2, 1988.)

Although the program factored in teacher judgments and additional
assessments, educators and parents who testified at several public
hearings argued that formal tests are unreliable and subject young
children to undue stress.

To address those concerns, State Superintendent Werner Rogers last
week proposed replacing the California Achievement Test with an updated
version of a state-designed, criteria-referenced test for kindergarten
students that had been introduced in 1980.

The "Georgia kindergarten assessment of communication arts and
number understanding" directs teachers to assess pupils' skills in
listening, speaking, and writing. But it does not require students to
fill in answer sheets, according to Joy E. Blount, a consultant in the
education department's division of assessment.

Mr. Werner also proposed basing promotion decisions more heavily on
teacher evaluations. And he offered a recommended "checklist" of skills
and activities to help teachers monitor pupils' progress.

Mr. Rogers recommended that the state continue to use the cat this
year. But he proposed offering teachers "ranges" of scores upon which
to judge kindergartners' performance--an approach that would replace
the "drop-dead, pass-fail, cut score," required under the current
procedure, said Glenn Newsome, legislative liaison for the state
education department.

The 10-member board unanimously backed Mr. Rogers's proposals late
last week and directed the state education department to proceed with
development of the updated readiness test.

Although some board members have voiced reservations in recent weeks
about revising the testing procedure, "everyone felt good that we were
making a change," said Hollis Q. Lathem, the board's president. Mr.
Lathem, who noted that the final test proposal will be subject to board
approval, said the new procedure will "get away from one that we have
learned causes so much stress for the child."

'Everything's Wrong'

Mr. Rogers touched off a debate in the legislature last month when
he first submitted a proposal to the board that would have required
school systems to develop their own kindergarten assessment plans and
would have offered them a choice of seven 1st-grade readiness
tests.

The move angered some legislators who had backed his controversial
decision last year to use the California Achievement Test.

"I questioned [state officials] before we ever put the cat in," said
Representative William C. Mangum, chairman of the House education
committee. "They told me at the time that they had piloted this for two
years and interviewed over 4,000 teachers and everything's ready--and
then the first year we had the test and all of a sudden everything's
wrong."

Representative Mangum introduced a bill last month that would have
blocked the state chief's proposal by requiring the use of a single,
uniform assessment for kindergartners throughout the state. The House
approved the measure by a vote of 136 to 34.

The Senate education committee, however, voted to set the bill aside
for further study. The action effectively killed the measure for the
current legislative session, which was drawing to a close last
week.

Representative Mangum maintained that legislators who tried to block
Mr. Rogers's earlier proposal were not "wedded" to a particular test.
But, he added, they felt that a uniform measure of readiness for 1st
grade--beyond teacher evaluations--should be used statewide.

"All the legislature has ever asked was that a test be developed
that can be administered to kindergartners showing they are ready for
1st grade work," Mr. Mangum said.

Some critics had charged that revising the kindergarten testing
rules would "weaken" enforcement of the state's Quality Basic Education
Act.

But Mr. Lathem maintained that the revisions would bolster the
education-reform law "by making the environment better for kindergarten
children--and yet still trying to assess those children and identify
the ones who need early help."

About 12.5 percent of the state's kindergarten students were
retained last year; 8.6 percent of that group failed the cat, according
to Ms. Blount.

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